Small Businesses Will See Billions in Sales This Easter

The Easter bunny is hopping down the trail and a lot of small businesses are ringing up sales in record numbers.

2017 Easter Spending Estimates

Estimates from the National Retail Federation suggest this will be the biggest Easter sales year ever in the U.S. NRF believes consumers will spend about $18.4 billion this year prior to Easter. That’s up from the previous record, set last year, of $17.3 billion.

Ecommerce Easter sales — part of the $18.4 billion total — should also hit a new height. NRF believes online sales of Easter-related goods will be up 21.4 percent over last year. NRF’s estimates come from a consumer survey conducted by Prosper Insights & Analytics.

Of those responding to the survey, 26.8 percent said they planned to shop on the web for Easter items. That’s up over 5 percent from last year.

Small Businesses Not Ignored

While more than half of all consumers say that they’ll buy Easter gifts at discount stores — presumably for inexpensive Easter basket candy — more than 1 in 4 (26.4 percent) say they’ll visit a local small business for their gifts.

It appears small businesses could be positioned to ring up billions in sales ahead of Easter.

Rob Starr is a Staff Writer for Small Business Trends. Rob is a freelance journalist and content strategist/manager with three decades of experience in both print and online writing. He currently works in New York City as a copywriter and all across North America for a variety of editing and writing enterprises.

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